For $15, and with the permission of the person being screened, the State Police will do a criminal history search in Virginia records going back as much as 50 years. The search will tell an individual or an organization what, if any, convictions the person has had in the state.

Nonprofit organizations get a special deal: $16 for both a criminal history search and a sex offender and crimes-against-minors search, if the purpose of the combined search is to accept the services of a prospective volunteer.

The second search will tell the organization whether the person is registered as a sex offender and why, regardless of where the crime occurred.

Turner says the time is past when people who work with money or with "vulnerable populations" - children, the elderly and disabled - can be accepted without question.

"This stuff of 'he's a nice guy' goes by the wayside. I think volunteer organizations take volunteers at face value, and they're too trusting. You wouldn't run a business like that," Turner says.

Volunteer groups and community organizations that operate on shoestring budgets must "bite the bullet and pay for bonding and outside audits," he says. "The temptation is great when you're dealing with large sums of money, and no one has ever questioned one iota of what you've done."

A prospective volunteer or part-time employee shouldn't be chased off by the organization's efforts to protect itself and its participants.

"If he kind of balked," Turner says of a resistant prospect, "I'd know there was something he was trying to keep out of the hopper."

On the other hand, asking for permission for a background check gives the person the opportunity to admit to some long-ago prank that resulted in a misdemeanor conviction.

Turner recommends doing similar searches in states where the person has lived before, to see if anything turns up.

And next year, he says, there will be yet another avenue: It will be possible to do fingerprint checks nationwide of people who would be working with children, the elderly or disabled.

ONLINE

To download a Criminal History Record Request and to get instructions for filing it, go to the State Police site on the Web at www.vsp.state.va.us and click on State Police Forms, then SP-167.

Judith Haynes can be reached at (804) 642-1734 or by e-mail at jhaynes@dailypress.com